Welcome to Black River Middle School. The smooth transition between elementary and middle school is a relevant component to the middle school here at Black River. Students are given the experience of small class sizes, interdisciplinary curriculum, and elective courses to discover new opportunities. Even though Black River is a K-12 school, the middle school is the stepping stone to a successful high school career.
Middle School Features
Field Trip Experiences
6th, 7th, and 8th grade students have a unique field trip experience each year.
Camp Pendalouan provides team building for incoming 6th graders to begin their middle school journey. Usually in the first weeks of school, students travel to Camp Pendalouan and participate in a variety of activities including team games and learning to build a camp fire. They are able to get to know their classmates and forge friendships through this fun experience.
Community service is highly valued at Black River. In the spring, 7th graders participate in a field trip centered around connecting with and giving back to the community around us. This year, students visited Habitat for Humanity, the neighborhood group 3Sixty for some spring cleanup, and Eighth Day Farm.
As students near the completion of Middle School, they begin to focus more on their future. We partner with GVSU to provide a college experience for our 8th graders. They were able to tour the college campus, eat lunch in one of the student cafeterias, and enjoy some downtime in the campus rec center. They were also able to ask questions about college and college life in a Q&A session with a panel of current GVSU students.
Collaborative Curriculum
In our middle school, students learn through a collaborative curriculum in which the different content areas work together. This provides a broader world view and allows students to see how the concepts they are learning in one class connect to another class.
For example, History, English, and Art complement each other. Eighth grade history introduces students to historical developments of Europe, with examination of the geographic, political, religious, economic, literary and artistic aspects of European cultures. While in English class, students receive reading and writing instruction with a focus on Early Europe, from Ancient Greece through World War II. Student who choose to take Art in 8th grade will study the visual culture of early Europe as they embark upon more advanced projects.
At the end of the year, student engage in a culminating project, the Renaissance Fair. Incorporating concepts and skills learned in multiple classes, students take on the persona of a Renaissance figure and present their research to students, staff, and guests.
FTC Robotics
Black River has two FIRST Tech Challenge teams, the River Rats and the Rogue Rats, comprised of middle school students and led by Science teacher, Mr. Bittrick, Math and Technology teacher, Mr. Schwartz, and Math teacher, Mrs. Esmeier.
Students design, build, program, and operate robots to perform multiple tasks for a variety of point values according to the game set by FIRST Robotics.
Our teams compete at two competitions each fall and in the past two seasons, one of our teams has qualified for the State Championships. In 2023, team 11266, River Rats, was selected for the final elimination rounds at our second competition. They were also awarded the Connect Award which earned them a spot at State Championships. In December, the team headed to the other side of the state for the competition, where they had a fantastic showing. They again were selected for the final elimination rounds and ended the weekend in the top 10 in the state.